Japan Base Wages Rise for First Time in Nearly Two Years

In a sign that the economic policies of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe may be starting to bear fruit, the basic earnings of workers in the world’s third-largest economy rose for the first time in almost two years in January.

Scheduled wages were up 0.1% from a year earlier, the welfare ministry reported Tuesday. That’s the first increase since March 2012 for wages, which have been on a declining trend since the late 1990s.

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